A high-density storage facility is under construction off Hill Avenue in south Fayetteville, designed to house University Libraries items in a climate-controlled environment. The 27,000-square-foot storage facility will hold approximately 1.8 million volumes when filled to capacity. The facility will also have a preservation and conservation area where materials will be cleaned, repaired and restored, as well as a workspace area for staff. An architectural rendering of what the high-density Library Storage Building will look like when completed (via U. of Arkansas; Courtesy of Perry Dean Rogers)
The new Library Storage Building represents a new and innovative era for the University Libraries on many levels, but in particular, the LSB will be the first demonstration of mass timber design and construction in the state of Arkansas,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture.
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Cross-laminated timber, known in the trade as CLT, originated in Germany and Austria in the 1990s, and is a cost-competitive, sustainable, and environmentally friendly alternative to concrete, masonry and steel construction. A CLT panel is constructed of timber planks that are stacked, glued and laminated in perpendicular layers under heavy pressure. The panels are pre-fabricated according to the builder’s specifications, then shipped to the building site and assembled, greatly reducing the construction time and eliminating construction waste.
CLT panels offer many advantages over traditional construction methods and materials, including improved dimensional stability to wide and tall construction, such as in the Libraries’ storage facility. In addition to providing a higher fire resistance and a higher building hardening rating on the Fujita tornado scale, CLT panels are lighter and thinner than steel and concrete construction, allowing for less massive foundations, structural supports, and roof, all of which make the building more cost effective to build. They also offer sound insulation, long term structural integrity and durability (even rated against earthquakes), and warm more quickly and hold warmth longer than concrete and steel.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
